​Occupy Wall Street

Sarah F

Over Time​

Progression of the MovementThough physical protests lasted only a few months, the original movement has since branched off into more concentrated goals--like raising the minimum wage and environmental protection policy implementation.

Critical junctures and defining moments of the campaign are displayed below. Occupy was heavily reliant on social media and a mass, disturbing-yet-peaceful presence in the heart of New York City, through the tail end of 2011.

Summary of Findings

Occupy Wall Street's greatest living accomplishment proves meager in the face of precedent set before it--that of King, Ghandi, and other vissionaries. Many solely accredit Occupy for focusing the rhetoric for years to come, applying a unifying slogan to the previously somewhat unidentified problem of weath disparity.

Visibily, Occupy only could sustain itself September through November of 2011. Absorbing the costs of mass inhabitance in a public park--heat, food, and sanitation became too much to bare.

Occupy itself succeeded in neither proposing nor pushing through any acts of legislature, because they had no policy proposals. Undoubtedly a shortcoming of the movement was its deliberate lack of concete goals, essentially deeming success unattainable. The overarching aspirations to end income inequality and corporate greed in politics were not going to be accomplished through vague and noisy public protest.

"If hope is an impossible demand, then we demand the impossible."-Judith Butler

Strategies employed by Occupy included sit-ins, marches, social media campaigns, and public disturbance to business as usual. Occupy was deliberately decentralized, meaning the movement had no recongizable leaders or faces of the campaign, all in an attempt to establish itself as inclusive and non-hierarchical-- revolting against a society confined by class division.

Occupy was plagued by vast shortcomings. Despite attempts to curate an image that the movement was representative of the "99%"--an embodiment of the everyday average American, the body was predominantly white, upper class, and male. Diversity is a strategic advantage to a nonviolent movement, and Occupy failed in this regard.

Over the course of its few short months, the homeless population taking advantage of food and shelter in a public park became a serious threat to sustainability. With growing costs and dropping temperatures, Occupy's end was approaching. The publicly perceieved image of an Occupy protestor became tainted by the occasional instance of fighting and sexual assault.

Signals of success and leverage included recognition from President Obama and endorsement by big-name celebrities. Viral videos of police brutality using violence and unjust force instigated nationwide outrage--a textbook example of backfiring.

Yet, despite all their efforts, Occupy was evicted from Zuccotti park in November of 2011, and forced to take on other forms to survive.

​Occupy failed--until reincarnation of course.

Reflection of Movement

I was particularly offput by the demographics of Occupy Wall Street; for being representative of the white upper class male is the very antithesis of the movement's goals.

Having learned the intimacies of many successful nonviolent campaigns, I knew the far-reaching and boundless goals of Occupy destined the movement for failure; King's first goal during the Civil Rights Movement was to desegregate lunch counters, after all. The leaderless chaos of Occupy made its revolutionary goals even more unrealistic.

All in all, I was most impressed by the media coverage Occupy harbored and continues to cultivate. Though I acknowledge the more considerable accomplishments of the movement once it splintered off; those were not representative of the original Occupy. Yet, its no small feat to set the stage for this undying political rhetoric and the civic conversation that dominates the public sphere today.